19th Century Building

Located within a refurbished 19th century building in historical Gastown, Wildebeest has a gorgeous and industrial chic interior. The exposed bricks with industrial light fixtures hanging above and dim lighting set a cozy ambiance. Wildebeest has an open-concept kitchen, a dining area with banquette seating and even an intimate underground private dining room. The staff at Wildebeest are dressed in denim-style to match the industrial chicness of the decor.

We were seated across the kitchen so it was really fun to look on from afar as to what they were doing. The staff looked so composed despite the high pressures of dinner service.

Dine Out Vancouver Menu

Priced at $40, Wildebeest’s Dine Out Menu featured a three course meal. I’m including a photo of the Dine Out menu because there are some slight differences from what is posted online. For example, bison carpaccio was noted as a starter online but they had enison carpaccio only.

What We Tried

For starters, I had an albacore tuna crudoand my friend had the beet terrine. I thought the albacore tuna was a delicate yet flavourful starter.

Next up were the entrees and the arctic char with Ansom Mills polenta, butternut squash and crispy kale chips. The polenta was deliciously creamy and smooth, and the butternut squash added hints of sweetness to the dish. The kale chips were wonderfully crispy and seasoned perfectly. The portion of arctic char was reasonable and it was light, moist and delicate in taste.

I tried a bit of my friend’s grilled beef striploin with potato mousseline, roasted mushrooms, and pearl onions. I found the meat to be tender and flavourful.

For dessert, I had a cheesecake mousse with strawberry sorbet and shortbread crumb. The strawberry really hits you with its coldness and offered a terrific contrast to the previous meat-centric courses. There were so many fun textures in this dessert – a smooth moouse, an icy and fruity sorbet and crunchy shortbread.

My friend’s dessert was an interesting one being a potato chip rice crispy square. It was hard and so hard that it was difficult to cut through with a knife. It came with a torched meringue, cherry sauce, and toffee. I must say that I much preferred the cheesecake mousse as a dessert.

Service

The service was on point but I did find the servers a bit shall we say, robotic. My server seemed almost expressionless and I guess I would have preferred some sort of warmth from her. Throughout the evening I watched as servers walked up and down the aisle as they kept a close watch on everyone’s table. The dishes came out in a timely manner and glasses were kept full the entire meal.

Our bill also came in unexpected manner…

Overall Impression of Wildebeest

I found the overall Dine Out experience at Wildebeest very good. I would have liked my server to be a bit friendlier, but the execution of the meal was spot on. Carnivores should give Wildebeest a try for a meat-centric dining experience. Rating: 4/5

For more information on Wildebeest, visit them at their website or social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

It’s Dine Out Vancouver season again and there is a whole lot of foodgressing going on in this city. Last Friday, I did a family-friendly Dine Out at the Rock Mountain Flatbread Co. My next Dine Out Vancouver adventure takes me to one of the most popular upscale restaurants in the city, Chambar. Chambar’s speciality is in Belgian cuisine. I had never been to Chambar before so I was very excited to try out their food for the first time.

Dine Out Lunch Menu

Priced at $28, Chambar’s Dine Out lunch menu features a three course meal. It is only available Monday to Friday from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm. The menu is available at their website.

What We Tried

My husband joined me on for this Dine Out lunch and we shared all of the dishes.

To start, there was the salade d’hiver with roasted beets, confit sunchokes, burrata, basil and pistachio pesto, lemon vincotto, and fresh pomegranate. It had such a beautiful colors and presentation. The salad was terrific – refreshing, flavourful, and with a sweeter taste.

They ran out of veal stuffed calamari, so the substitute was poulet à la citronelle. It consisted of lemongrass marinated chicken, quinoa, romaine, watercress, Belgian endive, red cabbage and grana padano, chipotle lime dressing, and smoked paprika crouton. The chicken was tender and the chipotle lime dressing was not overly acidic. The salads were very good and the meal was off to a good start.

One of the mains we had was the l’agneau libanais: grilled lamb kofta, green bean tomato stew, chickpeas, pine nuts, and mint labneh. This dish felt very comforting and hearty. There were lots of fun textures from the chunky stew to the crunchy chickpeas and pinenuts to the smooth labneh and finally the tender lamb kofta. The taste was more on the sour side but still appetizing.

The Thon au Miso was a contrast to the lamb dish. It was not so much comfort food, but an elegant dish to be savoured morsel by morsel. There was the perfectly seared albacore tuna with a wonderful soft texture and a gentle kick from the miso. The papadum was not very greasy and had a fine, crispy texture. The dish was rounded out with sautéed kale, broccolini and greens. The flavour profile was also more on the sour side but still very delicious.

For dessert, we had two Liege waffles with two sauces: white chocolate pistachio rosewater and fig orange marmalade. The waffles were wonderfully warm and chewy. The white chocolate pistachio rosewater had a lovely creamy texture and reminded me of condensed milk. The fig orange marmalade had a fruitier taste that offered a terrific contrast to the more sour entrees.

Overall Impression of Chambar

Everything about the Dine Out Vancouver lunch at Chambar was top notch – food and service. I love how the meal had various flavour profiles and was so stimulating. Highly recommend visiting them for Dine Out. Rating: 5/5

For more information on Chambar, visit them at their website and social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Dine Out Vancouver 2016 kicked off yesterday with 288 participating restaurants offering prix-fixed menu at $20, $30 and $40. For a family-friendly Dine Out Vancouver experience, my husband, son and I visited Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co. in Kitsilano last night. It was our first Dine Out experience with our toddler, so I was very excited about enjoying delicious food in a kid-friendly environment.

Handcrafted Flatbread Pizzas

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co. is best known for their handcrafted flatbread pizzas made with local and organic, free range organic meats and Ocean Wise seafood. They noted on one of their chalkboards that they use flour from Anita’s Organic Mill in Abbotsford, a brand that I also use in my baking. Other menu items include pastas, soups, salads and desserts. For those with food sensitivities, Rocky Mountain Flatbread can create gluten free and nut free pizzas.

Rocky Mountain Flatbread also hosts pizza making classes and parties. I would love to learn more about crafting a delicious pizza!

Family-Friendly

From the moment we walked in, I felt very at ease because there were so many other kids with their families at the restaurant. One of the staff brought my son some coloring sheets and crayons to start. I also loved that they had a small play area in the back where the little ones could keep themselves busy. My son had fun playing with the toy kitchens.

The menu items are price-wise on the higher side likely due to the high quality ingredients and for offering entertainment for the kids (play area + coloring). We all know that feeding kids requires patience and often takes a lot longer than we would like. As a result, the higher pricing is to offset the lower table turnover.

Dine Out Menu 2016

Their Dine Out menu is priced at $20 and included a starter (soup or salad), a main (small pizza or pasta), and a dessert. Here is the photo of their Dine Out menu as the one online is not as detailed. They use fresh ingredients so the choices for the soups and pastas depend on what are featured on that particular day. There are also several add-on options like gluten-free pizza crust (+$3), artisan pizza (+$1-$3), bolognese (+$2), and smoked bacon and three cheese (+$3).

What We Tried

We ordered one Dine Out Menu as well as a large pizza from their regular menu. From the Dine Out menu, we had a fig and goat cheese salad, pesto shrimp pizza, and warm double chocolate brownies with ice cream. From the regular menu, we ordered a large beef pepperoni pizza ($27) .

To start,the fig and goat cheese salad was absolutely refreshing and delicious. The ingredients (assorted greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, goat cheese) tasted very fresh. I quite enjoyed the Black Mission Fig dressing which had just the right amount of sweetness. The Vancouver grown sunflower sprouts added a fun texture to the salad.

I love pesto sauce so the pesto shrimp pizza was right up my alley. First of all, the crust of the pizza was wonderfully thin and crispy. Like all of their menu items, this pizza had high quality ingredients like organic tomato sauce and Ocean wise shrimp. The three herb pesto was not too overpowering and the pizza had great flavour.

The large beef pepperoni pizza had organic beef pepperoni, crimini mushrooms, herbs and roma tomatoes. I personally love crimini mushrooms as they have such a lovely earthy flavour. I’m a pesto-kind of girl so I preferred the pesto shrimp pizza, but my husband enjoyed the beef pepperoni pizza.

The meal was finished with a bang due to the amazingly good warm double chocolate brownies with ice cream. The brownies were warm indeed and had very nice chocolately gooey goodness to them. Along with the ice cream, this dessert was like heaven.

Overall Impression of Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co.

We really enjoyed our Dine Out experience at Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co. in Kitsilano. The restaurant is very family-friendly and the staff seem very accommodating and patient towards families. Pricing is on the higher side due to quality ingredients and perks for the kids like a playing area and coloring supplies. Rating: 4/5

The papaya and pineapple green asian salad was a refreshing appetizer. It had shredded fruit salad with cucumber, carrots, and jicama. They are tossed in kerabu fish sauce and sweet and sour dressing, then served with crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, and shallots.

I love the Nyonya Calamari rings with sweet chilli sauce. They were very crispy!

The roti canai is my regular must-have, and luckily it came part of the Dine out menu. It is flaky layered naan bread served with coconut curry sauce. Anyone who goes to Banana Leaf needs to order this!

The pisang goreng with ice cream and crushed peanuts were a real treat! It’s basically deep-fried banana with ice cream. I enjoyed the presentation of this dish!

I really loved this Dine Out experience at Banana Leaf. You must have a minimum of 2 people to order the Dine Out menu, so the photos reflect portions for 2 people to share. The portions were reasonable and we left feeling very satisfied from the meal. I highly recommend Banana Leaf for Dine Out or for any occasion!

I attended The Chef Soup Experiment, which was a free event held by Dine Out Vancouver 2015. 50 of Vancouver’s top chefs got together and contributed one ingredient for a collective soup. The students from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts then prepared the soup and provided samples for the public.

The 50 ingredients were listed on two boards. Some interesting ones I thought were dried mandarin orange peels, granny smith apples, and sweet grass.

I love eggplant…glad to see that it was one of the ingredients!

The soup was called “Canadian Wedding.”

The students from the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts were ready to serve the hungry crowd.

They were very focused on their work!

There were very cute little bread bowls ready to be filled with soup!

Here is the large pot of soup. It looked like an interesting mix.

The lineup seemed very excited for the soup and engaged by the work of the students.

Et voilà, the soup! They provided samples of the soup so that everyone could photograph it.

This is what the soup looked in a large soup plate.

My very own “Canadian Wedding” minestrone served in a bread bowl! It was definitely an interesting fusion of ingredients and it was hearty. The event was overall very well organized and the crowd had a great time. Free soup by 50 chefs was a success!